Variety, as they say, is the spice of life and that is certainly true of The Palm Beaches in Florida. Glorious sunshine in winter, gourmet food, amazing hotels, a top-flight tennis tournament, posh polo, history and snorkelling… And I am lucky enough to experience them all in just a week.
Located along Florida’s south-east coast, around 90 miles north of Miami and 200 miles south of Orlando, The Palm Beaches comprises 39 very different towns and cities. The region’s name was inspired by a shipwreck, of all things. In 1878 The Providencia, a cargo ship transporting 20,000 coconuts, ran aground off the coast near what would eventually become the town of Palm Beach.
Coconut palms grew from the cargo and Florida’s famous palm tree-lined coast was born. My trip to The Palm Beaches begins in the upmarket town of Delray Beach, seemingly populated exclusively by athletic-looking people dressed in fitness wear, with middle-aged ladies power walking up the street at 7am.
Delray Beach is one of The Palm Beaches’ most popular resorts, famous for its restaurants, shopping, nightlife and art galleries. I am staying in the Seagate Hotel, one of the best in town. Just a couple of blocks from the beach and recently renovated it has a relaxing spa, its own private beach club a short walk away and The Seagate Golf Club which also offers pickleball and tennis to hotel guests. I have a beginners’ golf lesson, more miss than hit.
The surroundings are spectacular though, with the manicured course surrounded by what look like very expensive houses. The Seagate offers a handy complimentary shuttle service that will drop and pick up guests within a three-mile radius of the hotel. I use it to visit The Beach Club for dinner. There I have an excellent meal of salad, swordfish and a huge dessert (a bit of a recurring theme here).
The Beach Club is just one of several excellent restaurants I eat at during my stay in Delray Beach. The others include Dada, with its interior inspired by the early 20th century Dada surrealist art movement, and serving very large portions of truffle parmesan fries.
Then there’s Lulu’s – a great place for lunch where the Korean fried chicken sandwich is to die for – and Amar, a Lebanese and Mediterranean restaurant serving gourmet kebabs among other things, including the melt-in the mouth Wagyu steak. Every meal is topped off with the obligatory huge dessert.
The main reason I’m here is to watch the Delray Beach Open Championship at the resort’s Tennis Center. It’s an elite tournament whose past winners include current world number four Taylor Fritz and British number two Cameron Norrie.
After yet more fabulous food at the all-you-can-eat Championship Brunch – sushi, steak, pasta, seafood, freshly made omelettes, bottomless bloody Marys and mimosas – I’m lucky enough to watch Norrie play up-and-coming American Alex Michelsen in the 28C sunshine.
Norrie loses but not without a fight. As probably the only Brits in the crowd, my companion and I had been loudly cheering him on only to find out the friendly American in front of us is Norrie’s best friend!
Next year’s Delray Beach Open will be in February. If you’re a tennis fan, I highly recommend it. The sports theme continues with a polo match at the National Polo Center in Wellington. A waitress explains the rules to us but this is not really about the sport but more about soaking up the posh Royal Ascot-style ambience… and indulging in yet another enormous brunch.
Wellington is in Florida’s horse country and the Polo Center covers 161 acres, with six polo fields and grandstands for 5,000 spectators. Halfway through the match, I go out on the field with fellow spectators, a free glass of champagne in hand, for the traditional stomping down of divots. It’s a great way to spend a day and you get an idea of what it must be like to be royalty.
After a relaxing stay at The Seagate, I move on to my second hotel, the Singer Oceanfront Resort, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, in Riviera Beach, Singer Island. Right next to the beach, this is a great property for families, and the resort fee includes one hour of non-motorised watersports and bike hire for a day. The rooms are huge and I have a spectacular view of the long sandy beach from my balcony.
After several days watching other people being active it’s now my turn and I head off to nearby Get Wet Watersports for snorkelling in the warm Florida seas. Captain Dan and Nate, our guide, take us out to explore the waters around artificial Peanut Island, which has campsites, a man-made reef and a blast shelter built for President Kennedy.
The snorkelling is amazing. Nate explains what the many colourful tropical fish around us are. He even finds two hermit crabs and holds them up for us to watch as they pop in and out of their shells. Back on the boat we have drinks and snacks to round off a very enjoyable morning. This part of Florida is also renowned for its shopping and I next head off to Palm Beach to explore Worth Avenue, one of the world’s most exclusive retail districts. Designed in the Mediterranean Revival style by architect Addison Mizner, the avenue became a fashionable place to shop in the 1920s.
It features nine ‘vias’ pedestrian walkways which lead to charming courtyards and gardens. Exploring these tucked-away areas is a must as you will miss a lot of what Worth Avenue has to offer if you just walk straight down its main thoroughfare.
Mizner was an eccentric whose constant companion was his pet spider monkey, Johnnie Brown. Palm Beach is now said to be haunted by the ghost of Johnnie buried in the pretty courtyard of Worth Avenue’s Pizza Al Fresco restaurant.
If you don’t fancy eating lunch near a dead monkey, you can ask to be seated inside like I am when I enjoy an excellent pizza for lunch, with yet another rather large chocolate dessert. After lunch it’s time for a bit of Palm Beach history. Between 1894-1896, multi-millionaire Henry Flagler, often called the founding father of Florida, built two waterfront resorts: the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers, which put Palm Beach on the map as America’s first exclusive tourist destination.
His life and achievements are celebrated in the town’s Flagler museum, housed in his 75-room waterfront mansion, Whitehall.
Built in 1902 in the European Beaux-Arts style, Whitehall was described at the time as “more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world”. I have a guided tour of the house, which is indeed “magnificent”, and learn a lot about Florida’s history and the man himself. It is a fitting way to finish my visit to The Palm Beaches, a holiday destination that really is a fabulous testament to Henry Flagler’s grand vision.
Book the holiday
- Virgin Atlantic flies from Heathrow to Miami, Florida, starting at £500 return. virginatlantic.com
- Rooms at The Seagate hotel in Delray Beach start at around £192 a night. seagatedelray.com
- Rooms at The Singer Oceanfront Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton in Riviera Beach start at around £205 a night. hilton.com
- More info at thepalmbeaches.com
